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News About Democratic ProcessesThu, 26 FEB 2015 02:08:01 AESTThu, 26 FEB 2015 02:08:01 AESTen-us
Geneva (AFP) Feb 25, 2015 -
US Secretary of State John Kerry will address the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week, the UN said Wednesday, confirming he will be in Switzerland as new Iran nuclear talks kick off.

"We have just heard now ... that Secretary of State Kerry will also be here to address the council on Monday," council president Joachim Ruecker told reporters.

Kerry will participate in the opening of the council's main annual session in Geneva, which will coincide with a new round of negotiations in Switzerland over Iran's nuclear programme.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will also take part in the council session, together with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and other dignitaries.

The so-called P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany are trying to strike an accord with Iran that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.

The West would, in return, ease the punishing sanctions it imposed on Tehran over its nuclear programme, which Iran insists is purely civilian in nature.

Negotiators are scrambling to make headway ahead of a March 31 deadline for agreement on a political framework.

The full deal must be agreed by the end of June, -- a cut-off point that looms all the larger after two previous deadlines were missed.

Kerry told a Senate hearing Tuesday that world powers "had made inroads" since reaching an interim deal with Iran in November 2013.

"And we expect to know soon whether or not Iran is willing to put together an acceptable, verifiable plan," he said, adding bluntly: "I don't know yet."

Moscow's top negotiator Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov meanwhile said there was "a growing confidence that an agreement will be reached by the assigned (June 30) deadline."

And Mogherini said a deal was "at hand," telling the Chatham House think tank: "We cannot miss this opportunity."

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Thu, 26 FEB 2015 02:08:01 AEST
Cairo (AFP) Feb 23, 2015 -
An Egyptian military court has postponed to March 9 the trial of the Muslim Brotherhood leader and 198 other Islamists over deadly clashes after president Mohamed Morsi's ouster, an army official said Monday.

Mohamed Badie, 71, facing his first military trial, and the other defendants are accused of participating in clashes that killed 31 people in the canal city of Suez between August 14 and 16, 2013.

The clashes erupted after police brutally broke up two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on August 14 that year.

Hundreds of supporters of Morsi were killed when police stormed their camps in Cairo on that day, just weeks after the Islamist president was ousted by the army.

Badie has already been sentenced by three separate criminal courts to three life terms, and he was also handed down two death sentences that were later overturned on appeal.

An army official said the charges against Badie and others in the military trial include vandalism, inciting violence, murder, assaulting military personnel, and setting five to armoured personnel carriers and two Coptic churches in the city of Suez.

Military tribunals in Egypt have regularly faced criticism for their harsh and swift verdicts.

Egypt's constitution allows military trials of civilians accused of violence targeting military targets, which include public infrastructure like highways and bridges as well as universities.

Since Morsi's overthrow in July 2013, the authorities have launched a brutal crackdown against his supporters leaving hundreds dead and thousands jailed after often speedy mass trials.

Morsi himself is facing several trials on charges that are punishable by death, while his Islamist movement has been designated a "terrorist group."

Aquino is facing the biggest crisis of his nearly five years in office over last month's assault in which the special forces killed a top Islamic militant but also unexpectedly came under heavy fire from Muslim rebels.

"If there are officials who are trying to persuade us into joining coup attempts, we will not follow them. They are not part of our chain of command," military public affairs chief Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc told reporters.

"We have no valid reasons to remove our loyalty from the president of the republic."

The coup rumours began to dominate local media and political chatter last week when a senator told a Senate hearing that unnamed military figures financed by a wealthy individual were plotting to overthrow Aquino.

The military has a long history of meddling in the Philippines' democratic system, including supporting dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s.

With the support of military figures who abandoned Marcos, Aquino's mother Corazon led a "people power" uprising in 1986 that saw the dictator flee into US exile.

She then withstood six coup attempts during the first half of her six years in office.

One of those saw Benigno Aquino shot five times, and he still has a bullet in his neck from the ambush against his mother's forces.

Benigno Aquino's predecessor, Gloria Arroyo, also weathered several coup attempts, although the top military leadership remained loyal to her.

Aquino, who won the 2010 presidential elections in a landslide, has enjoyed widespread popular and military support throughout his time in office.

This had, until last week, ensured there were no coup rumours.

But he has faced public outrage over the January 25 assault against Islamic militant Zulkifli bin Hir on the southern island of Mindanao.

Zulkifli was killed but 44 police commandos also lost their lives after poor co-ordination saw them ambushed by Muslim rebels. At least four civilians and 11 guerrillas died as well.

Still, political and security analysts in the Philippines have said Aquino does not face any serious coup threat as he is still relatively popular and continues to have the support of the military leadership.

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Thu, 26 FEB 2015 02:08:01 AEST
Havana (AFP) Feb 7, 2015 -
Leftist FARC guerrillas on Saturday vowed to lay down their weapons and reinvent themselves as a political party, if the Colombian government follows through with the reforms under discussion in peace talks.

The rebel group, whose full name is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, "is committed to ensuring that the armed hostilities of the past don't get recur," one of its negotiators Jesus Santrich said in a statement read to the media at the start of another day of talks.

Among the changes the FARC hopes to see, Santrich said, is the group's "transformation into a political movement that can work to bring about structural change" in Colombia.

The FARC as a political party would also endeavor to bring about reparations for victims, and to preserve "the historical truth" about the country's decades-old civil conflict, he said.

Negotiations between the two sides resumed this week in Havana after a year-end break, as rebels and the Bogota government try to end the half-century old insurgency.

Talks so far have yet to resolve key issues including disarmament and how any agreement should be ratified.

The FARC said in its statement that it also is looking for reform of the government's position on communism, overhaul of the armed forces, greater protection of minority rights, and other changes.

The government's delegation, led by Humberto de la Calle, has been meeting with negotiators from the rebel group since November 2012.

So far, the two sides have agreed on three of the six points of the agenda to end the conflict, which is estimated to have claimed the lives of more than 220,000 people.

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Thu, 26 FEB 2015 02:08:01 AEST
Colombo (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena has renewed orders allowing for troops to be deployed across the island, dampening hopes Thursday of a lower-profile military presence under his rule.

Sirisena's election last month had been expected to lead to a lessening of the numbers of troops in towns and cities -- particularly in former war zones -- which had been a prominent feature of his hardline nationalist predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse's tenure.

During the build-up to his election victory, Sirisena promised to confine the military to their barracks and call them out only in the event of an emergency or a threat to national security.

But, according to a presidential decree seen by AFP, Sirisena has now renewed a monthly authorisation for the deployment of troops across the island.

"By virtue of the powers vested in me, I, Maithripala Sirisena, do by this order call out all the members of the armed forces...for the maintenance of public order," read the order.

The presence of large numbers of troops is particular contentious in the mainly Tamil northern and eastern provinces that bore the brunt of a 37-year separatist conflict, which was brutally crushed by the army in May 2009.

During a speech on Wednesday to mark the 67th anniversary of the former British colony's independence, Sirisena had stressed his desire for a national reconciliation which Rajapakse is accused of failing to deliver.

Tamil lawmaker Suresh Premachandran said the president should explain why he felt it necessary to call out troops nearly six years after the end of the war.

"We have been asking for the withdrawal of troops from the north and the east, but this order only serves to continue the army presence," Premachandran told AFP.

"I strongly believe that there is no need to deploy troops anywhere in the country."

"He (Sirisena) promised change but if he is going to continue what the previous government did, then we are back to square one."

The Free Media Movement (FMM), a leading local rights groups, said it had expected Sirisena to confine troops to barracks.

"We think this is a retrograde step in dismantling the role of the military in our day to day life," FMM spokesman Sunil Jayasekera told AFP.

Sri Lanka lifted a state of emergency in August 2011, two years after security forces crushed Tamil Tiger rebels and declared an end to war but the previous government had deployed the military alongside the police.

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Thu, 26 FEB 2015 02:08:01 AEST
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 2, 2015 -
A disappointing turnout at Hong Kong's first democracy rally since the end of mass street demonstrations shows the city is suffering from "protest fatigue" and new longer-term strategies are needed to drive reform, analysts say.

A procession of yellow umbrellas, the symbol of the democracy movement, edged slowly through the centre of the city on Sunday afternoon -- the first time demonstrators had gathered after more than two months of street blockades ended in December when protest camps were cleared.

Organisers said that 13,000 people attended the march -- with police estimating 8,800 -- far below the 50,000 hoped for and a fraction of the 100,000 who took to the streets at the height of the rallies.

China has pledged that Hong Kong can choose its own leader for the first time in 2017, but says the candidates must be vetted by a loyalist committee, which campaigners dismiss as "fake democracy".

In the face of their failure to achieve any concessions over political reform, some supporters are now questioning whether it's worth taking to the streets.

"Beijing has played the game quite smartly. They have convinced most Hong Kong people that even if they were to replay Occupy Central, that would not be sufficient to sway Beijing," says political analyst Willy Lam, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The city is now divided over whether to accept Beijing's version of universal suffrage -- which will go before Hong Kong lawmakers this year -- and hope for improvements later, or to veto the plans, said Lam, who added that a "tangible roadmap" from the democracy camp could help galvanise public support.

With little chance of a sudden change of mind from Beijing on reforms, student activists and campaigners are advocating longer-term strategies.

The founders of the Occupy Central group have said they are now pushing for greater education about the democracy movement and a social charter.

There is also a drive to get young voters to the polls and student leaders elected.

"The movement should be done in a different way if going to the streets to protest doesn't work," says 33-year-old computer programmer Robert, who was a regular at the protest camps but who did not attend Sunday's march.

"We can try to make a difference within the system. Can student activists try to influence others by joining lower level elections, then make changes as they move up the ranks?"

Robert says he has turned his back on the street protests because, in his view, they made no difference.

"I just don't have the motivation. Occupying the roads was the most radical thing I have ever done, and still nothing was achieved," he told AFP.

- 'Sleeping tiger' -

Author and political analyst Michael DeGolyer agrees that street protests now are ineffective -- but says that the public is waiting to see what happens as the key political reform package moves through the Hong Kong legislature.

The bill to enact Beijing's framework of reforms will be put to a legislative council vote, expected in June, and pro-democracy lawmakers have vowed to block it -- a move which could result in Hong Kongers having no vote at all in 2017 elections.

"The public don't see the point of marching right now. Nothing has happened to bring people back to the streets," says DeGolyer, a professor of government and international studies at Hong Kong's Baptist University.

Activists had "misread" public sentiment by organising Sunday's rally, he said.

DeGolyer warned that if the government pushes through unpopular policies it would trigger "a second Occupy movement... likely to be much more violent than anything we've seen up to this point".

"(City leader) CY Leung is sitting on a volcano very close to erupting. The tiger is asleep but not dead."

Hong Kong's democracy movement is now in a "transition period" said Ivan Choy, a political analyst at Chinese University, with organisers and supporters recovering after the "exhausting" street blockades.

"People have to take a rest and equip themselves for further action," he said, suggesting this could take a different form than previously.

"Leaders should think about their next steps: traditional peaceful protests may not attract some people anymore," says Choy.

"They might prefer a more radical form of protest."

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Thu, 26 FEB 2015 02:08:01 AEST
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 1, 2015 -
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong Sunday for the first time since mass demonstrations shut down parts of the city for more than two months.

A sea of yellow umbrellas -- the symbol of the campaign -- moved slowly through central Hong Kong with crowds shouting for "true universal suffrage".

But numbers were well below expectations with 13,000 attending according to organisers -- just over a quarter of the 50,000 they had hoped for.

"Today's protest wasn't a small one. It was smaller than we expected, but it's wrong to say Hong Kongers have given in to fake democracy," said organiser Daisy Chan.

Police said up to 8,800 people had joined the march, a fraction of the tens of thousands who gathered at the peak of the protests.

Authorities have made no concessions to activists' demands and tensions remain high in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Police warned ahead of the rally that demonstrators were likely to once again try to occupy some of Hong Kong's main roads, which were cleared of tented camps in December.

But by late afternoon the march remained peaceful, with no sign that the crowds -- including many people carrying yellow balloons -- planned to take back the streets.

"We don't have a plan (to reoccupy). If others want to do it, they will have to do it themselves," student leader Alex Chow told AFP.

Despite the disappointing turnout, there was a sense of determination among demonstrators.

"We just want to express our frustration with the government in Hong Kong," said protester Ronnie Chan, who is in his 40s and works in sales and marketing.

"We understand there is very little we can do, but if we don't speak out nothing will change."

The pro-democracy rallies drew around 100,000 at their height and saw intermittent violent clashes with police, but public support faded as the weeks dragged by.

- 'Tired of politics' -

China has promised Hong Kongers the right for the first time to vote for their next chief executive in 2017. But it ruled that nominees must be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee, a proposal which has been heavily criticised by activists.

The founders of the pro-democracy movement including Benny Tai, along with teenage activist Joshua Wong and other student leaders, urged residents to keep fighting as they joined Sunday's rally.

"If we don't dream, we don't have hope. We should persist then we will succeed," said Tai.

Wong warned against accepting universal suffrage within the restrictions of Beijing's framework.

"I hope people understand that if we take that now, it will be forever," he said.

But political analyst Sonny Lo said residents were exhausted from protests over political reform.

"At this moment, members of the public are tired of politics. The democrats have to strategise very carefully," said Lo, head of the social sciences department at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Hong Kong's government is urging the public to support Beijing's electoral plan, which needs the backing of two-thirds of the city's legislature to be passed.

Lam Woon-kwong, convenor of the Executive Council or cabinet, warned campaigners to accept Beijing's offer.

"You can't threaten the central authorities," he told a radio programme Sunday.

"If we can have consensus to have universal suffrage in 2017 first and democratise further later, it would be a more pragmatic approach."

But for some protesters, backing down is not an option.

"I'm just doing my bit. Some people may have compromised, but I definitely will not," said one father of two who gave his name as Alvin.

Protests in Hong Kong pre-date the Occupy movement -- last July hundreds of thousands demonstrated a month before Beijing ruled on political reform.

"Never let textbooks promoting Western values appear in our classes," minister Yuan Guiren said, according to a report late Thursday by China's official Xinhua news agency.

"Remarks that slander the leadership of the Communist Party of China" and "smear socialism" must never appear in college classrooms, he added.

China's universities are run by the ruling Communist party, which tightly controls discussions of history and other topics it construes as a potential threat to its grip on power.

The party often brands concepts such as multiparty elections and the separation of powers as "Western", despite their global appeal and application.

Beijing and Hong Kong authorities blamed recent student-led demonstrations in Hong Kong calling for greater democracy in the former British colony on "foreign forces", although no evidence has been cited.

China has tightened controls on academics since Xi assumed the party leadership in 2012, with several outspoken professors sacked or jailed.

Xia Yeliang, an economics professor at the prestigious Peking University, was fired from his post in 2013 after a 13-year tenure in a decision he attributed to persistent calls for political change in China.

Xia was one of the original signatories of the reformist petition Charter 08, whose main author Liu Xiaobo remains in prison even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

The university attributed the dismissal to poor teaching, and he moved to the US last year.

The minister's remarks came shortly after Xi called for authorities to increase the party's leadership of universities, and to "strengthen and improve ideological work".

"We should never allow teachers to complain or vent grievances in the classroom, so as not to transfer negative emotions to the students," Yuan said according to Xinhua.

Teachers must adhere to the "political, legal and moral bottom line," Yuan added, using a common expression for support of China's authoritarian political system.

He also suggested Xi's own speeches -- recently officially published in book form -- should "enter teaching materials, enter the classroom and enter the minds" of students.

China has greatly expanded its higher education system as its economy has grown, with the total number of universities and colleges more than doubling in the past decade.

But many children of the country's political and business elite prefer to study at institutions in the US and Europe, including Xi's own daughter, who has reportedly attended Harvard University since 2010.

- 'Brainwashing' -

Most of the Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989 were students from Beijing universities and their demands included increased funding for education and a free press, both firmly under government control today.

Commentators on Chinese social media site likened Yuan's ideas to "brainwashing" and China's dark past, when teachers and intellectuals were paraded through the streets as enemies of the revolution.

"I guess these commands are more strict than those during the Cultural Revolution," said one user on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, referring to the decade of chaos under Mao Zedong when nearly all schools were shuttered.

"Finally, there will be nothing keeping me awake in class, I can sleep all day," another user wrote.

Many of China's current leaders, including Yuan, were forced to postpone higher education for the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution, when Communist orthodoxy was the most important lesson.

Analysts say this may incline them against change in a range of areas, including education, media and Party ideology.

A Chinese province last month announced plans to install CCTV cameras in university classrooms, sparking an outcry from lawyers who say the move would further curb academic freedom.

Authorities have in the past installed video equipment in the classrooms of outspoken academics, most notably Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti, who was sentenced to life in prison for separatism in September.

Evidence from the classroom cameras was used to convict the scholar, in a case that was condemned by human rights groups.

A number of protest leaders have been arrested and released without charge, with some calling the investigation harassment.

Occupy founder Benny Tai said that he, Chan Kin-man and Chu Yiu-ming had been formally arrested on accusations of organising and participating in an illegal assembly, but were not charged. They were released after three hours.

"Three of us were showed some videos and articles... we were released unconditionally," he said.

More than two months of street rallies calling for fully free leadership elections ended in December when protest camps were cleared, but police have vowed to investigate the "principal instigators".

Police chief Andy Tsang defended the investigation earlier Saturday.

"The police made the arrangements (for the arrests) in private and it was never made public. How can you say it's a PR show? Who told you they would go to a police station? We should be clear whose show it is," he told reporters, confirming that those released may be asked back as the investigation was ongoing.

While other protest leaders have questioned police motives, Tai said he "trusted" the rule of law.

"I still trust the police and the prosecution... will strictly follow the requirements of Hong Kong laws in any investigation.

"The public can make their own judgment on whether there are any political motives behind their investigation," he said.

Dozens of supporters outside the station, including lawmakers, held up banners and yellow umbrellas -- the symbol of the democracy movement.

"I absolutely believe that Hong Kongers will not give up," Tai said in a speech to the crowd before he went in to the station.

Tension remains high in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city since the street blockades which brought parts of the city to a standstill.

They were sparked after Beijing said that candidates for the 2017 vote would be vetted by a loyalist committee.

Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai and prominent student leaders including Joshua Wong and Alex Chow have also been arrested and released as part of the widespread investigation.

Both Chow and Wong questioned the process, saying police should charge them if they had the evidence.

The Occupy founders first turned themselves in at the beginning of December in a move to get the protests off the streets after violent clashes, but were not arrested.

The Occupy movement was the first to galvanise support for civil disobedience over political reforms, but as the protests went on the group faded into the background as students took over.

Tai has said it would now take a different approach to promoting democracy, including through education.

He confirmed Saturday that he would join a pro-democracy rally through the city on February 1 -- the first major march since the protest camps were cleared -- which organisers expect to draw 50,000 people.

The advert which appeared in the newspaper's Asia edition takes up a quarter page and lists "10 requests" to the Chinese Communist Party.

They include asking it to "refrain from interfering in the administrative affairs of Hong Kong" and to "establish a system of genuine universal suffrage" as well as defend the city's freedoms.

The advert comes as tensions remain high after more than two months of rallies for fully free leadership elections ended in December, when protest camps were cleared.

Pro-democracy campaigners want the government to scrap political reform plans which they say would only deliver "fake democracy".

Beijing has pledged that the city can elect its own leader for the first time in 2017, but says that candidates must be vetted by a loyalist committee. Hong Kong authorities insist that reforms to grant universal suffrage in the leadership elections must stick to China's strict parameters.

"Three years ago, I was just like any other trader in Hong Kong. I didn't care about politics... but things have changed so much it is important for finance people to speak up and to stand together to fight for true democracy," said hedge fund manager Edward Chin of new group HK Finance Monitor 2047, which took out the advert.

He added that a letter outlining the 10 points would also be sent to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The campaign group -- which consists of 70 finance workers -- grew out of a previous band of financiers and bankers who supported the Occupy Central campaigners who first galvanised support for civil disobedience over the election proposals.

The group's reference to 2047 in its title comes from the Sino-British joint declaration, signed before the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, which says that Hong Kong's economy, freedoms and way of life will be protected for 50 years.

The advert appeared on page 25 of the Thursday edition of the Wall Street Journal and was flagged as a "political advertisement".

"The economy is being hindered by the lack of democracy here," said corporate governance activist David Webb, who is also part of the campaign group.

"Hong Kong has to start looking at whether we're going to... preserve the current systems that we have, or whether we are now on the slippery slope of erosion and assimilation and absorption into the mainland system."

The advert comes two days after the city hosted the Asian Financial Forum which saw high-profile international figures including finance ministers gather at Hong Kong's convention centre.